


The Meaning of Loneliness

by HomuraBakura



Series: Arc V Angst Week 2018 [6]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Angst, Attempted Murder, Developing Relationship, Ghosts, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-21
Updated: 2018-09-21
Packaged: 2019-07-11 18:12:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,353
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15977717
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HomuraBakura/pseuds/HomuraBakura
Summary: It's chance that causes the student council president Reiji to meet awkward first-year Yuya in an empty science lab, trying to talk to a ghost.  Reiji doesn't necessarily believe in ghosts, but Yuya seems convinced that he can see and hear faint glimpses, and Reiji is soon dragged into Yuya's quest of helping lonely spirits achieve one last happiness.But there are secrets woven into Reiji's past, ones that even he doesn't know, that might put Yuya in danger.





	The Meaning of Loneliness

**Author's Note:**

> for Arc V Angst Week, prompt six: Spirits

Reiji was pretty sure that door wasn’t supposed to be open.  He hesitated as he came up towards it. The pile of class notebooks was rather heavy and he was anxious to drop them off, but it was odd for the science room’s door to be wide open after classes were over.  No one should really be in the school except for the student council.

He heard a faint inhale from inside, and as he reached the open door, there was definitely somewhere in there.  A boy sat perched on one of the stools at the lab table, his hands resting on the counter. It was hard to perfectly make out what he looked like from the vibrant light of the setting sun pouring through the windows, but he looked younger than Reiji.  A first-year, perhaps.

Reiji cleared his throat at the door.  The boy’s face darted up, eyes widening.  He let out a tiny swear, looking back down to counter and hurriedly moving his hands.  It took Reiji a half moment to recognize what he was doing — was that a ouija board?

The boy mumbled something that Reiji couldn’t  hear and that he wasn’t sure was even for him, and then swept the board and planchette off the table and into his bag.

Reiji frowned.  Now, he’d come across quite a few strange things in his time as student council president, and more than a few troublemakers who’d been messing around in empty classrooms, but this was the first time he’d found someone trying to summon ghosts.

“What are you doing?” he asked.  “You know that this room is supposed to be closed, don’t you?”

“I’m sorry!” the boy said.  “I just — this was the only time I had.  Oh, I did get permission, though! Professor Weber said I could stay behind — uh, he thinks I was working on some make up work, though, so um...that’s what I was doing.”

He put a finger to his lips, smiling as though he were impressing on Reiji to keep the secret.  Reiji blinked at him. Now that he was adjusting to the light, he recognized him. He was a first-year, a bit lanky, with a mop of shaggy green and red hair that fell into his eyes, as though he hadn’t gotten a trim in months.  A pair of goggles were pushed onto his forehead, mussing his bangs. His name was...Ta...Tanaka? No, no, Sakaki. Sakaki Yuya. The son of a famous stage magician, Reiji thought he remembered. He recalled vaguely a brief spurt of students dropping coins all over the floor in the halls as they tried to copy the coin tricks that Sakaki had taught them during lunches.

Reiji raised an eyebrow at Sakaki, and the boy blushed.

“Guess I can’t expect the student council president to cover for me, huh?” he said with a dramatic sigh.

“I didn’t say that,” Reiji said.  “You weren’t lighting anything on fire, so I don’t see too much of an issue.”

He shifted his pile of notebooks into one arm so that he could fix his glasses.

“But, may I ask...why were you attempting to summon spirits in the science lab, of all places?”

Sakaki’s face turned slightly pink.  He played with the straps of his goggles against his head.  For a moment, he went on a bit of a face journey — eyes scrunching up, biting his lip, then looking pensive, and then finally nodding to himself.

“Can you keep a secret?” he said.

The way he said it made Reiji pause.  He looked at Reiji with wide, almost nervous eyes.  

Normally, Reiji would have just shook his head and moved on. The usual strangeness of mischievous first-years.  He had some work left to do, after all. But something about Sakaki made him hesitate.

“I suppose I can,” he said, stepping into the science lab and setting down his books.

* * *

Akaba Reiji was not the kind of person Yuya would have expected to share this with.  In fact, his heart hammered in his chest as he pulled the ouija board back out and set it on the table.  Akaba seemed like a pretty scientific, logical guy. He’d probably be skeptical, and maybe even tell Yuya that he was dumb.

“Okay,” he said, already committed, however.  “So...the science lab has a ghost in it.”

Akaba raised an eyebrow.  Yuya blushed.

“I know!  It sounds dumb,” he said.  “Don’t worry, it’s not anyone who died of a murder, or suicide, or anything.  As far as I know, I think it’s an old professor who used to work here. He hangs out here because it’s nostalgic.”

Akaba glanced at the board, and then at Yuya.  

“And did you figure this out by...ouija board?”

“No,” Yuya said, blushing deeper.  “I...you absolutely have to keep this a secret.  Whether you believe me or not... I don’t want this to become a big deal.”

Akaba glanced at him.  He fixed his glasses.

“You have my word, Sakaki-san.  I will not spread this — regardless of my conclusions on its validity.”

“That was a lot of big words, but it sounds like you said yes.  And call me Yuya,” Yuya said. “Sakaki is...that’s what people call my dad.”

Akaba nodded.  He waited, then, with his hands folded in front of him on the table.  Yuya tried to come up with a good segway. He finally decided to just jump right in.

“I can hear ghosts,” he said.  “Just a little. It’s like hearing someone else talk on the other side of a phone, but they’re not holding the phone to their mouth.  And sometimes I see a bit, too. Like...the flicker of a scarf, or something.”

He looked into the corner, and sure enough, he could see just a single boot.  The boot was not supposed to be there, and it moved away whenever he walked towards it, disappearing out of sight until it returned to the corner when he walked away again.

“During class I hear him correcting Professor Weber a lot.  That’s why I think he must have been a teacher,” he said. “I was trying to see if this would work to talk to him.”

Akaba glanced at the board when Yuya pointed it out.

“Have you used one before?”

“No,” Yuya admitted.  “To be honest...this is the first time I’ve actually tried to contact one of the spirits I’ve seen.”

He shifted in his seat, wringing his hands beneath the table.  Akaba’s eyes were still on the ouija board, and it was really hard to tell what he was thinking.  He rubbed his chin softly.

“May I ask another question?” he asked.

“You just did,” Yuya said.  Akaba blinked, and Yuya blushed.  “Sorry. Bad joke. Go ahead.”

Akaba hummed to himself before asking.

“Why do you want to talk to this ghost?”

Yuya hesitated.  He stopped wringing his hands, clasping them instead.  His eyes flickered to the boot, where he was pretty sure the old professor was standing.

“I don’t know,” he said.  “I guess I just thought he sounded kinda sad.  And maybe I could do something to help.”

Akaba stared at the ouija board for another long moment.  And then his eyes raised up to Yuya. He nodded slowly.

“Well,” he said, standing up and gathering his notebooks.  “I will leave you to your ‘makeup work’ then.”

Yuya blinked at him, eyes widening.  He was shocked to see the tiniest of smiles pull at his lips — that was the most expression he’d ever seen out of Akaba Reiji.  A smile broke out over his face, too.

“Thanks!” he said.  “And you too.”

He turned back to his board, pulling the planchette back out.  But as Akaba turned, and began to walk away, his eyes caught sight of something.  He looked up.

Something flickered behind Akaba’s head.  Like...pigtails? Yeah, he saw just the hint of pigtails, faintly see through, bouncing a bit like someone was walking after him very closely.  He blinked, and Akaba was gone around the corner, the pigtails with him.

Yuya’s lips parted.

Did...

Did Akaba Reiji have a ghost following him around?

* * *

Reiji caught sight of Yuya again during a lunch break.  He wasn’t sure why he had decided to take the route down the hallway that passed the science lab; it was a bit of a detour for where he wanted to go, but something made him want to pass by again.

He wasn’t surprised to see Yuya in there, his eyes bright as leaned over the ouija board.  Reiji could see his fingers moving with the planchette, eyes flicking from one letter to the next.  Yuya burst out laughing at something he seemed to have read.

Reiji didn’t really believe in ghosts.  He’d accepted Yuya’s words, but only out of a sense of duty to his promise.  It would certainly be obnoxious for Yuya to have to deal with the inevitable jeers that less kind people would send his way if his belief got out.  

But...Yuya was all alone in there.  He hadn’t even seen Reiji. Unease twisted Reiji’s stomach.  What purpose would Yuya have to fake talking to a ghost when there was no one there to see it?

“Thank you,” Yuya said to no one.  “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure. Thank you, and goodbye, Professor Tenjo!”

Yuya smiled, moving the planchette back to the edge of the board, and then pushing them back into his bag.  He was hopping to his feet when he finally saw Reiji, and his eyes widened.

“Oh!!” he said, turning red.  “Uh — how long were you there?”

“Not very long,” Reiji said.  “Were...you speaking to the ghost?”

Yuya’s smile was infectious.

“Yeah!!  I actually managed to contact him!  His name is Tenjo Kaito, and he used to work here a few decades ago.  He died just about a year ago. Nothing bad, just old age. He started hanging around the school just a month ago.”

The name was unfamiliar.  Reiji made a mental note to check the school records to see if that was true.

“Actually,” Yuya said, ducking his head.  “Hey, Akaba-senpai, can I ask you a favor?”

Reiji blinked, surprised.

“What kind of a favor?”

* * *

Yuya held the big bouquet of flowers awkwardly on his lap.  He really, really hadn’t expected Akaba to say yes. It was kind of a stupid, impulsive thing to ask — but Akaba was loaded, and he was the only person Yuya knew of in school who had access to a car.  And it had been a pretty big favor too: asking someone you barely knew to cart you all the way to the next city?? He was still reeling that Akaba had agreed.

Akaba sat in the seat beside him, leaning an elbow against the window sill and his head on his hand.  He was staring out the window, and not at Yuya. Yuya shifted awkwardly, tapping his feet.

“I’ve never been in such a cool car before,” he said.

Akaba let out a small breath that might have been a laugh.  It was a really cool car, though. It was big enough to hold four people sitting across from each other, like the inside of a limo, even if it wasn’t long enough to actually be a limo.  There was even a tiny fridge under one of the seats.

The car finally slowed, pulling them up to the address that Yuya had given him.  He waited nervously for the doors to unlock, and then bolted out. Akaba slipped out through the other door, taking a moment to ask the driver to wait.  

Yuya looked up at the small, pretty building in front of them.  It was a quaint, Western-style house, with ivy creeping up the railings.  Yuya hesitated, his heart in his throat. What if he was wrong? What if he was just totally delusional??

He jumped when he heard Akaba quietly stand next to him.

“Is this the place?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Yuya said.

Akaba waited.  Yuya felt his stomach twist.  Well, he’d made Akaba come all the way out here.  He had to at least follow through — and if he was crazy?  Well, he was crazy. He sucked in another breath, and then marched up to the door.  He knocked three times, and waited. He was a little surprised when Akaba came along with him, standing quietly near him.

It seemed like ages passed, and he was about to knock again when he finally heard footsteps.  The door opened slowly. A very elderly man appeared, squinting out through the door. His hair was nearly white, but Yuya could see hints of the soft gray-blue it had once been.

“H-hello,” Yuya squeaked.  “Is...are you Tenjo Haruto-san?”

The old man frowned, squinting at Yuya, and then Akaba, and then back to Yuya again.

“That is me,” he said, in an old, wobbly voice.  “What do you want?”

He sounded so exhausted.  Yuya almost felt bad for disturbing him.  But he held the flowers out anyway.

“Um,” he said.  “These...these are from your brother.”

Tenjo Haruto stared at the flowers.

And then his face completely changed.  His shaking hands reached out to accept the big yellow bouquet from Yuya.  He stared at the flowers. And then he pressed his face into them. Yuya could tell by the way his shoulders were shaking that he was crying.

Beside him, Yuya heard a faint rush of an exhale.  He looked quickly over to see Akaba — but no, Akaba was on the other side of him.

Instead, beside him was a tall, youthful looking man.  He had the same steely eyes and face shape as Haruto, with blond hair spiked back and aqua bangs cut around his face.  It was the clearest that Yuya had ever seen him.

Tenjo Kaito looked down at Yuya, and quirked a smile at him.

 _Thank you_ , his lips mouthed.

And then...he was gone.  And Yuya had a feeling he wouldn’t be seeing him in the science lab anymore.

“Thank you,” Haruto said, gasping slightly, one hand to his chest to still his racing heart.  “How did you know? About Kaito? That these flowers were...”

Yuya felt like he was on fire with delight.  Beside him, Akaba’s eyes were huge.

“He told me,” Yuya said, smiling.  “And he thought he could use a little cheering up.”

* * *

Yuya bounced in his seat on the way back to Maiami.  The sun was nearly set by the time they got back into the city.

Reiji kept stealing glances at him.  He tried to think. Could Yuya really have dug deep enough into the school’s records to find out that Tenjo Kaito had once worked here?  Could he have stumbled across the obituary even though it only ran in a Heartland newspaper? Could he have done all that research, pretended to see ghosts, just to make a man he’d never met happy?

And even if he had done all of that work, how would he have known about the flowers?

Reiji prided himself on being a very logical person.  He’d figured out that Santa Claus wasn’t real when he was five, by matching the quirks in the wrapping’s folding on the gifts to his father.  But logic should not be determined just to disprove — it should be determined to find out the correct answer from the given information.

And from the given information...he couldn’t deny the strong possibility that Yuya was telling the truth.

“Thank you for doing this, Akaba-senpai!” Yuya said.  “I didn’t want the flowers to get crushed on the subway.”

“It’s...no trouble,” Reiji said.  He pursed his lips. “Yuya...was this your intention from the beginning?”

Yuya tilted his head.  Reiji elaborated.

“Did you intend to...help this ghost of Tenjo Kaito?”

Yuya frowned, thinking about it.

“I guess...no, not at first,” he said.  “Mostly, I just wanted to prove to myself that I wasn’t crazy.  I’ve seen and heard bits of spirits since I was a kid.”

He bit his lip.

“But then I actually got to talk to him, and he wasn’t scary, like stories about ghosts usually are.  He was just lonely, and didn’t know where to go. He wanted to make his little brother smile one more time, but he’s a ghost.  He can’t tell anyone, or affect the world. Isn’t that sad?”

He looked down at his knees.  Then he smiled.

“Hey,” he said excitedly.  “Maybe that’s why I have these powers!!  If I’m the only person who can see or hear them, maybe I can help!  I’ll bet there’s a lot of ghosts who just want help finishing something up, or saying goodbye to someone.  I could do that!”

Reiji almost chuckled.

“So you’re the ghost-whisperer?” he said.

“Sure,” Yuya said, getting more and more excited, bouncing in his seat.  “Think about it, though, Akaba-senpai! Ghosts must be so lonely and frustrated.  But I could help! I could make them happy — it’s not something anyone else can do, but I could do it!”

He looked so on fire with the idea that Reiji was a bit swayed too.  He put his hands on his knees, leaning back from the window.

“And how would you go about finding ghosts?” he asked.  “That seems to be the first order of business.”

Yuya hummed, folding his arms.

“I guess I could investigate ghost stories first,” he said.  “Haunted houses in town and stuff. Or urban legends. Oh, I could make a website or some posters, maybe, and have people come to me!”

He was so excited.  His face was so alight with happiness.  It...was doing something strange to Reiji’s stomach.  He coughed and cleared his throat into his hand.

“You’ll need help for something like that,” he said.

Yuya’s eyes slid over to him, questioningly.  Reiji had half a sense that he was going to regret this.  It didn’t stop him from speaking.

“Perhaps I could help,” he said.  “You’ll need transportation, of course.  I can at least assist with that.”

Yuya’s eyes lit up like fireworks, and Reiji’s stomach was doing something strange again.  Yuya flung himself across the seat to give Reiji an awkward hug while they were both still seat-belted.

“Thank you!!” he said. “Thank you, Akaba-senpai!!  That makes us partners, then!!”

Reiji fumbled to fix his glasses, which had been bumped when Yuya hugged him.

“You can call me Reiji,” he said, feeling a heat skitter over his cheeks.

* * *

Reiji’s house was _huge_.  Yuya couldn’t help but gape up at the gigantic gates that opened into the massive grounds.

“There must be a bunch of ghosts in here,” Yuya said.

“I doubt it,” said Reiji.  “It was only just built in the last two decades, and my family’s the only one who’s lived here.”

The car pulled down the long drive, and Yuya bounced in his seat.  He shot a glance at Reiji. He hadn’t seen the hint of pigtails since the first time they’d met, and he wondered if he’d imagined it.  He squinted. Reiji’s eyes flickered to him.

“Is something wrong?” he asked.

“Nah,” Yuya said, leaning back in his seat.  “Hey, Reiji. Has anyone you know died recently?”

Reiji blinked.

“No,” he said.  “Not that I’m aware of.”

The car pulled up to the big doors.  They’d barely climbed out when one of the doors was pushed open with some difficulty, and then a small shape bolted out from inside, colliding with Reiji’s legs. Reiji nearly fell into the car, and Yuya pushed him back up.

“Who’s this?” he said, lighting up.

A small girl with long lavender hair hugged Reiji’s knees.  Her eyes darted up to Yuya and widened. She quickly spun behind Reiji’s legs, clinging to him and peering out suspiciously at Yuya.  Yuya smiled, crouching down to her eye level.

“Hi!” he said.  “I’m Yuya. What’s your name?”

The girl hid her face in Reiji’s knees.  Reiji sighed, reaching down to pat her head.

“This is Reira,” he said.  “My little sister.”

He patted her again.

“It’s all right, Reira.  Yuya is a friend of mine.”

Yuya smiled brightly at her, and Reira stared back with her almost too big eyes.  She buried her face back into Reiji’s knees.

“She’s shy,” Reiji said with a sigh.  “Don’t take it personally.”

“That’s okay,” Yuya said, popping back to his feet.

As he moved, however, he saw the pigtails again.  He stopped, widening his eyes to make sure he wouldn’t blink and miss it.  He wasn’t mistaking it — the imprint of see-through pigtails hovered just beside Reiji, a little over Reira, as though the figure were looking Reira over.

Reiji caught the look in Yuya’s eyes, and as Yuya looked at him and then back, the pigtails were gone.  Reiji raised an eyebrow. Yuya shook his head. Reiji didn’t seem to know of anyone who had died recently, so he probably wouldn’t know who the ghost was.  He’d have to talk to them himself.

“So what’s the plan for today, partner?” he said, swinging his arms as he followed Reiji up the steps to the slightly open door.

“We should start with research,” Reiji said.  “We can start by checking, as you said, any rumors of haunted places in the area.  Once you’ve had a few more wins under your belt, then I think we can start actually advertising.”

“Cool!” Yuya said, lighting up.  He could hardly wait. He was going to do something to help, something that no one else could do!

It would be a good distraction, too.

He quickly wiped that thought away, focusing on the grandiose entry hall that greeted him.  He gaped, eyes bulging at all of the fancy wood and floors and the grand staircase before them.

“Holy shit,” he said.  “This is basically a museum — do you actually live here?”

“Unfortunately,” Reiji said.  “We can commandeer a parlor room for the afternoon.  Is there any particular tea you prefer?”

Yuya couldn’t even remember what he said for the tea, he was too busy staring at the vases sitting on tables in nooks and the fancy paintings hanging on the walls.  Reiji led them towards a door on the left, one hand on Yuya’s back to keep him moving while he ogled everything. They were nearly to the door when there was a soft footstep on the stairs, and Reiji tensed.

“Reiji?  Is that you?”

Reiji looked like he was fighting not to say something rude.  It was a very odd expression for him, and one that was more interesting even than looking at the rest of the building.

“Yes, father,” he called.  “I’m home.”

Yuya looked back.  At the top of the stairs was the man who must be Reiji’s father.  He was tall, broad, and his hair was completely shaved. His eyes were deep set, and the lighting made them look like holes in his head from this distance.

Reiji, rather reluctantly, turned back towards the stairs with Yuya and Reira as his father descended.  Reiji’s father’s eyes flickered to Yuya.

“And who is this?” he said.

“Father,” Reiji said stiffly.  “This is Sakaki Yuya. He is a classmate.”

Yuya didn’t hear what Reiji’s father said next, because there was a sudden, desperate hiss in his ear that almost made him jump.  He didn’t quite catch the words, only _“away_.”  A chill passed over his arm, and then he saw the pigtails again, right in front Reiji’s father, as though whoever they belonged to were trying to stand in between him and them.

He blinked dizzily as Reiji tugged at his arm.

“S-sorry,” he said.  “What did you say?”

Reiji’s father leveled dark, unreadable eyes at him.  Yuya felt like he was being appraised, and it took everything he had not to start shifting uneasily.

“Only that it was a pleasure to meet you,” he said.  “And that I hope you’ll enjoy your stay.”

Yuya felt very cold.  He nodded.

“Thank you, sir,” he said.  “It’s a pleasure to meet you too.”

* * *

“I can’t believe you didn’t bring me along to your first ouija board session,” Yuzu said.

Reiji watched Yuya winced, fiddling with his goggles.

“I’m sorry,” he said.  “Are you mad? I would have called you, but your school is so far from mine.”

The girl half smiled, slinging her arm over Yuya’s shoulder.  She was the same age as Yuya, with bouncy pigtails and bright blue eyes, and she wore the uniform of a fairly selective girls’ school.

“Nah,” she said.  “I’m just teasing you.  I’m glad I could come for this one, though!”

She winked at Yuya, and then sent a look at Reiji.  Reiji couldn’t quite tell what the look was supposed to mean — suspicion?  Protectiveness? He only frowned back at her.

“Let me introduce you two for real,” Yuya said.  “Yuzu, this is Akaba Reiji. He’s my senpai. Reiji, this is Hiragi Yuzu.  We grew up next door to each other.”

“Pleased to meet you,” Reiji said, inclining his head.

“I hope you’re keeping him out of trouble,” said Yuzu with a half smile.

She turned towards the house, then, the one that they’d met in front of, and put her hands on her hips.

“So,” she said.  “What’s this one’s story?”

The house was old, and no one had lived in it for a few decades.  The windows were half boarded up and the paint was peeling, the yard overgrown with grass and weeds.  Reiji turned on his phone to check the information he’d saved.

“Rumors have been in the neighborhood that a woman has been seen standing in the windows,” he said.  “There’s a lot of cats that seem drawn to the place, too. And one person claims to have heard music from inside.”

“Who lived here before?” Yuzu asked.

He scrolled down to the picture he’d taken of the house deed.

“Her name was Tenjoin Asuka.  She was a professional dancer.  She broke her leg during a performance in her thirties and never fully recovered enough to perform again.”

Yuzu inhaled with a sharp sorrow, and Yuya looked down.

“That’s awful,” she said.  “Did she...die from it?”

Reiji shook his head.

“According to the obituary, she died at eighty-two of natural causes,” he said.

“She must still be here because she misses dancing,” Yuya said.

“Well,” Yuzu said, rolling up her sleeves.  “Let’s find out!”

They picked their way through the overgrown yard and up to the door.  The door was locked, and Yuya looked like he was prepared to try to kick it down.  Yuzu, however, shooed him back, producing a small set of lockpicks.

“Where did you...” Reiji started.

Yuzu winked, and got to work.

“It’s crazy the kind of people you meet at a girls’ school,” she said.

The door opened, and they slipped inside one at at time.  It was dark out, so Reiji hoped no one would see them breaking and entering.  The last thing he needed was to get in further conflict with his father.

Yuzu turned on a flashlight, reminding Reiji that he had not even thought about that kind of supply.

“Nice thinking, Yuzu,” Yuya said.

“You’re the ghost guy, he’s the research guy, and I’m the supplies guy,” Yuzu said, tapping her fist to her chest proudly.  “So what next, Yuya? You hear anything?”

Yuya screwed up his face, listening.

“Yes,” he said slowly.  “I can’t get all of it, but it...sounds like she’s asking who’s there.”

He turned in a slow circle.

“Hello?” he called.  “Are you Tenjoin Asuka-san?  We’re sorry for intruding.”

He listened again.  Then he shrugged.

“Let’s try the board,” he said.  “That seems a little more reliable.”

He sat down on the dusty floor, pulling out the ouija board.  Reiji sat down carefully, watching out for nails as he looked around the room.  It was a very small, unassuming house, and there wasn’t any furniture left behind.  No signs of the person who had lived here.

Yuya set up the board, setting the planchette on top.

“Tenjoin-san?” he called.  “I’m having trouble hearing you.  This is kind of slow, but we can talk like this.”

He placed his fingers lightly on the planchette.  After a beat, Yuzu lodged the flashlight between her knees and added her fingers too.  Reiji hesitated before also setting his finger on it.

It occurred to him that despite his participation in all of this, and his deductions that Yuya couldn’t be lying, he still wasn’t positive he believed in it.

So he choked a bit when he felt the planchette move without his or their making a motion.  It slid without pause to a letter. Then another, and another. Reiji was so surprised that  he didn’t pay attention to what they were spelling.

“I’m Yuya,” Yuya said in response to the question that it must have been.  “And these are my friends, Yuzu and Reiji. We heard you might be here, so we came to visit.”

The planchette moved again, and this time, Reiji tried to paid attention to the letters.  

_W....h....y...?_

Yuya paused before he answered.

“I thought you might be lonely,” he said.  “It’s...rough when people forget you’re there, right?”

The planchette didn’t move.  And then Yuya suddenly took his hands off of it, jumping to his feet.

“Hey, hey, it’s okay,” he said to the air patting at something that none of them could see.  “It’s all right. It’s all right. You must have been lonely for a really long time, huh?”

Reiji couldn’t see anything, but Yuya’s movements were consistent towards a space just near his head, like he was trying to pat at a pair of shoulders.  He moved with surprise then, looking back down at the ouija board. The planchette started to move again, and Reiji’s heart leapt into his throat.

_T....h...a...n...k...y...o....u_

Yuya knelt down by the board again.

“Is there anything we can do for you?” Yuya said.

For a long, long moment, there was no answer.  Then Yuzu leaned back, clapping her hands.

“You used to be a dancer, right?” she said.  “Why don’t we dance with you, Tenjoin-san?”

Reiji lifted his fingers from the planchette almost unconsciously.  His eyes bulged as he watched the planchette start to move even though no one was touching it.

_T...h...a...t...w...o...u...l...d...b...e...f...u...n._

Yuzu dug out her phone, switching to a music app.

“I don’t know if I have anything you’d like,” she said.  “Let’s try this, though?”

She turned on a sweet, leisurely waltz sort of tune.  Yuya started to sway back and forth with it, looking up at nothing and grinning. Yuzu closed her eyes, then, and started to sing.

She had a shockingly rich, pleasant voice, and she sang in English with perfect tone and pronunciation.  It was like listening to the recording of a Broadway musical from New York. Yuya hopped to his feet, still swaying in time.  He smiled, holding out a hand to Reiji.

“Reiji, let’s dance!” he said.  “Tenjoin-san wants us to join in!”

Reiji wasn’t sure how he was supposed to feel at the moment.  He was shocked beyond belief at the planchette, and the fact that there was, without a doubt, a ghost in this room.  But at the same time, Yuya’s smile was infectious, and Yuzu’s voice was so sweet, and it was hard to resist them. He took Yuya’s hand, and Yuya pulled him to his feet.

Yuya laughed, taking him by both hands, and beginning to swing them around in circles.  It was obvious that he’d never officially learned to dance, but his cheer was so bright that Reiji couldn’t help but smile and dance awkwardly along with him.  Yuzu jumped up and began to spin as she sang, too. Yuya’s hands were warm, his laugh was bright, and for a brief, shining moment, it felt like the house was alive again, in bright colors and sunlight, and he could almost hear another woman singing along, her feet tapping along the tile floor as she swung and sashayed to the song.

Yuya twirled Reiji with one hand, and then spun him back into his arms, almost taking the both of them down.  Reiji managed to catch them both, holding Yuya up as though he’d just dipped him. Their faces were surprisingly close, he thought distantly.  Yuya’s face was alight, all smiles and ruddy cheeks. The music faded, and Yuzu slowed to silence.

He looked over to the side, then, and his smile got even sweeter.  He stood up carefully, still holding onto Reiji’s hand.

“Thank you, Tenjoin-san,” he said.  “Goodbye.”

Reiji didn’t see anything.  But he felt something, much like a soft, friendly candle light, that slowly flickered out.  He stared at the space where Yuya had been looking.

“Is she gone?” he asked.

Yuya nodded.  He noticed with a start, then, that Yuya was crying.  Tears rolled down his red cheeks, shoulders shaking as his shoulders curled up around his ears.  He cried, rubbing at his eyes with one hand.

Quietly, Yuzu came over on his other side, sliding an arm around his waist and resting her head against his shoulder.  He let his face fall against her head, and continued to cry silently.

Reiji only held his hand, and watched the place where the ghost of Tenjoin Asuka had probably been.  He didn’t say a word.

He felt, however, that perhaps Yuya’s tears weren’t for Tenjoin Asuka.

He just wasn’t sure it was all right to ask what they _were_ for.

* * *

“Hey, Reiji?”

“Hm?”

“Are you sure that you don’t know anyone who’s died recently?”

Reiji frowned at him.  Yuya rested his head on his arms, sitting backwards on his chair and resting against the back.  Reiji was at the desk behind him, flipping through some notes from the student council. Yuya was just waiting for him to finish that so that they could start researching another house.  In the meantime, Yuya definitely saw those pigtails again. It looked like the owner of them was standing next to the desk, or maybe sitting against the edge of it, watching what Reiji was doing.  After a beat, they disappeared. He saw them reappear again near the bed, where Reira was sprawled on top of the covers, watching a youtube video on Reiji’s phone.

“I’m quite positive,” Reiji said finally.

“And you’re sure no one’s died in this house?” Yuya said.

Reiji watched him carefully.  He nodded.

“Is there something in here?” he said, suddenly sounding concerned.  “If you see something, Yuya...I can investigate the house’s history, if you’d like.”

“I dunno,” Yuya said.  He frowned. The pigtails were turned towards him a bit now, but it was hard to tell if it was the back of the person’s head or the front, if the pigtail person was looking at him or not.  “She... I think it’s a she. I don’t actually know.”

He frowned, sticking his tongue out slightly.

“There’s someone with long, maroon pigtails,” he said.  “She follows you to school sometimes. I see her here most often though.”

The pigtails moved a little closer to him, and he was sure that she was listening.  He strained to listen if she was speaking.

“She’s hard to hear, though,” he said.  “Harder than most ghosts. I think if...if she’s someone you knew, I think she must have died a really long time ago.  The longer a ghost has been dead, the harder it is for me to hear them.”

He stared at the pigtails, which were standing in front of him now, lower, almost at his eye level, and he was positive she was trying to look at him, trying to get his attention.

“I’m sorry,” he said, voice cracking.  “I don’t think I can hear you, if you’re talking to me.”

The pigtails winked out of sight.  Yuya realized that Reiji was staring at him — or no, not at him, but trying to look where he had been looking.  He frowned, shaking his head.

“I don’t think there’s any ghost here,” Reiji said slowly.  “At least...I can’t think of who that could possibly be.”

Reira suddenly looked up, pulling out one of her earbuds.

“Did you say ghost, niisan?” she said.

Reiji immediately looked chagrined.  He turned towards Reira.

“No, it’s all right, Reira.  There’s no ghost.”

Reira didn’t look like she was scared, though.  She sat up and scootched to the end of the bed, kicking her legs back and forth over the side.

“Sometimes someone sings me lullabies when I’m scared,” she said.  “Someone sits at the end of the bed and sings for me.”

Reiji sent Yuya a look, his eyes widening.  Yuya smiled.

“It sounds like...she probably likes you guys,” he said.  “Reiji, let’s see if we can figure out who she is!”

* * *

Whoever the mysterious ghost in the Akaba household was, she was difficult to speak to.  Yuya had tried to ouija board three times, and they’d seen the planchette wiggle, but it seemed like whoever she was, she had trouble moving it.  Yuya never saw anything more than pigtails, and heard little more than incoherent whispers.

Reiji frowned, poking through his phone.  He’d researched the house, but nothing was coming up.  He’d researched his family history, too, wondering if it might be a distant aunt or grandmother, who’d followed them from one house to the new one.  But he couldn’t find anything about anyone with pigtails, which was the only feature they knew for sure.

He also had the strangest sense that Yuya wasn’t telling him _everything_ he knew about the ghost.  When Reiji had asked if the woman had done anything else of note, if there had been any moments where it was easier to hear her, his eyes had sort of shifted, and he’d said no.  He was clearly hiding something. But what? And why?

Reiji sighed, letting the phone fall to his lap.  He looked up from his spot at the bench, watching Reira clamber up the jungle gym.  She had a big streak of dirt across one nose from falling off the swings, but she was very determined to get to the top of the jungle gym now.  Reiji half smiled. Reira didn’t get to come outside very often. Father insisted that she was too frail, and she didn’t even go to school. But that was ridiculous.  Reira needed stimulation.

Luckily, today, father had been out, so Reiji had no troubles taking Reira outside.  He was supposed to be meeting Yuya here soon, too.

He frowned.  He wondered, for a moment, if the mysterious pigtails girl who sang lullabies for Reira was here, too.  Was she watching over them? Somehow, it felt a bit eerie, even if she was kind, to think about how some invisible woman had been following him and Reira around for who knows how long.

“Oh, hey, you.”

Reiji looked up.  Yuzu grinned at him.  Without asking, she flopped into the bench beside him.  Her eyes flickered over the park, and then she pointed towards Reira.

“That must be Reira-chan,” she guessed.

“Good guess,” Reiji said.  “Yes, that’s my sister.”

Yuzu grinned, clearly pleased with herself.  She leaned back against the bench, watching Reira perch herself on top of the jungle gym.

“Yuya coming out soon?” she asked.

“He should be,” Reiji said, glancing at his phone.  “He hasn’t told me otherwise.”

Yuzu nodded.  They sat in silence for a bit, then, just watching Reira as she started to clamber back down, and then ran off towards the slide with another child.

“Hey,” Yuzu said suddenly.  “How do you feel about Yuya?”

Reiji glanced at her, but she wasn’t looking at him.  She was chewing on her lip, still looking at the park — it was clear her eyes were actually elsewhere, however.  Reiji looked back at Reira, considering the question.

“He’s...very kind,” he said.  “All he wants is to make others happy.  Even if those people are ghosts. He’s...single-minded in that way.  I sort of admire that.”

He looked at Yuzu to gauge her reaction.  She half smiled, still not looking at him.

“That’s Yuya for you,” she said softly.  “He’s always thinking of others before himself.”

She chewed on her lip again.  Reiji got the feeling that there was something else she wanted to say, but he waited patiently for it to come out.

“He’s....Yuya’s sensitive, you know,” she said suddenly.  “And...and he’s been through a lot. More than you know. I know he doesn’t have a lot of friends at his high school.  I...I felt awful at one point, for deciding to go to a different school. I know he never thought differently of me for it, but...I sort of felt like I abandoned him.”

She looked up at Reiji, and a tiny smile pulled at her lips.  It looked sad, though, her eyebrows upturned.

“He’s been happier since he met you,” she said.  “It’s...been a while since I’ve seen him so carefree.  I guess...thank you. For sticking with him, and going on all these wild ghost hunts with him.  It...it’s helping him.”

Reiji looked back at the park.  He let out a low, heavy sigh.

“I think he’s helping me more than I am him,” Reiji said.

“Maybe,” Yuzu said with a faint smile.  “He’s good at that.”

She shifted in her seat again.

“All I wanted to say was that,” she said.  “Just...please be careful with him. He’s...lost a lot, this last year.  I think the distraction is helping.”

Reiji’s shoulders slumped.

“You don’t have to beat around the bush, Hiragi-san,” he said softly.  “I know what happened.”

Yuzu shot him a sharp look.

“Did Yuya tell you?” she asked, accusing.

He shook his head.

“It was in all the newspapers, Hiragi-san,” Reiji said.  “I had forgotten at the time I met him but...no, it wasn’t hard to remember.  I didn’t research him, if that’s what you’re asking.”

It was only half a lie.  He’d watched Yuya cry in Tenjoin’s house, and he’d wondered what exactly was hurting him so badly.  Something had stirred a memory. He’d searched the internet while he was looking for more information about another house for them to investigate.  It had all come back to him, then.

Sakaki Yusho, the famous stage magician, shot in an alley after a show in a suspected gang incident.  Rumors of Sakaki Yoko’s former involvement in gangs, that may have led to the attack. Sakaki Zarc, Yuya’s older brother, arrested for tracking down the man who had shot his father and shooting him too.

No wonder Yuya found himself so desperate to help those who were lonely, the ones that no one saw or heard.

Yuzu pressed her hands into her lap.

“Please,” she whispered.  “Take care of him, will you?  I don’t think I can by myself.”

Reiji nodded.

“I’m not going to abandon him,” he said softly.  “If that’s what you’re asking.”

* * *

Yuya felt like Reiji’s father was watching him.

It was probably in his head, he thought.  But still, it was discomforting. He would slip out of Reiji’s room to use the bathroom, and see Akaba Leo standing at the end of the hallway, staring at him.  Every time he came over, Leo happened to be there, maybe at the top of the stairs, maybe in the kitchen when they passed by to grab snacks. Eyes always watching him.

Yuya didn’t want to say anything, though.  He didn’t want to go around accusing parents of things when maybe they were just weird.  Reiji didn’t seem to like his father very much, but...Yuya remembered how much it had hurt, when he’d listened to the news stations accuse his mother and her former gang connections to be the reason his father was dead.  He didn’t want to accuse anyone’s parents of anything.

Even if the ghost seemed to not like him much, either.

“Did you find anything?” Yuya asked, scootching over to Reiji.

Reiji sighed, shaking his head.  They had a big box of old photo albums from the attic, and they were sorting through them, looking for some sign of the girl with the pigtails.  Yuya frowned. They’d been looking for information for several weeks now, and nothing had turned up. Not a single distant relative, or even a family friend.

“And we can’t get her to talk much, either,” he sighed.  “Or, well...it seems like she can’t talk much.”

“Hm...” Reiji said, frowning.  “We’ll keep looking, I suppose.  In the meantime, I’ve found another house we can investigate.”

“Nice!” Yuya said.  “Let’s go tomorrow after school.”

He fell to the side so that he was leaning against Reiji.

“Thanks for doing all this, Reiji,” he said.  “You’re doing a lot of work for something like this...I know you have a lot to do, too.”

Reiji smiled — he had a very nice smile, Yuya thought.  It was rare, and when you got one, it felt like a precious treasure.

“It’s no trouble,” he said.  “I...enjoy this. The research is calming.”

He said something else, but it was too quiet for Yuya to quite here.  He leaned into Reiji, turning his head to catch a glimpse of him.

“What?” he said.

Reiji’s cheeks pinkened a bit.

“I said that I enjoy spending time with you,” he said.

Yuya’s cheeks went red next.  He was suddenly intimately aware of how close together they were, pressed up against each other like this.  Yuya found himself staring at Reiji’s lips all of a sudden. He had very nice lips. Gah, what kind of a thought was that?

He quickly sat up straight, and the awkward moment passed.  They sat very quietly for a few moments, only Reiji moving as he shifted some papers around.  Yuya hugged his knees, staring at the pile of photo albums.

“Did I ever tell you why I started wanting to do this?” Yuya asked quietly.

Reiji hesitated.  He glanced at Yuya.

“I don’t believe you did,” he said.

“I’ve seen and heard ghosts since I was a kid, but it was always just kind of something I lived with,” Yuya said.  “But then...then my dad died.”

He buried his face against his knees.

“I waited.  I waited so long to see if he would come back.  If I would be able to hear or see even a glimpse of him.  But I never did. I tried using the ouija board, but he never answered.”

He could feel the tears staining his knees, but he didn’t lift his head.  He felt a soft hand rest against his back.

“And then my brother shot someone,” he said.  “And then he was gone, and the house was so big and empty with my mom working all the time, and now I was scared that the guy my brother had killed would come back to haunt me instead.”

He sniffled.

“I started crying in class.  Not loud. But enough to just start feeling so, so alone.  And...and that was when I heard Tenjo-sensei for the first time.  He stood next to my desk, and even though he probably thought I wouldn’t hear him, he asked me if I was okay.  It was...it was the first time anyone had noticed how badly I was feeling.”

He sniffled, wiping his tears off on his wristband.  Reiji waited quietly, his hand still on Yuya’s back.

“It made me think...for as alone as I felt, the ghosts I met all the time must feel even more alone.  Because someone is more likely to notice me than anyone is to notice them. And I didn’t want anyone to feel lonely anymore.”

Reiji squeezed his shoulder.  Yuya managed a smile, then, suddenly feeling bad that he’d made Reiji listen to him whine.

“Anyway, that’s it,” he said quickly.  “Sorry.”

“No,” Reiji said quietly.  After a beat, he shifted closer to Yuya, putting his arm around his shoulders and drawing him closer.  “Don’t apologize.”

The tears started again.  Yuya buried his face into Reiji’s shoulder and cried.  It was the most he’d cried in a long, long time.

And yet, he didn’t feel in the slightest alone.

* * *

Reiji had never been to Yuya’s house before, and as he walked up to the door, he wondered if all the times Yuya had quickly dismissed his offer to pick him up, if it had been out of embarrassment.  His house was certainly much smaller than Reiji’s, and it looked a bit run down. Still, it was very colorful, splattered with all kinds of fun paint across the front that made it stand out in the neighborhood.

He knocked politely.  He hoped Yuya wouldn’t be upset with him for coming to pick him up without warning for today’s house investigation.  But he’d felt like he wanted to surprise him.

The door opened.  A tired looking woman peeked out — this must be Yuya’s mother.

“Hello,” Reiji said.  “My name is Akaba Reiji.  I’m a friend of Yuya’s. Is he in?  We had planned a trip today.”

The woman’s lips parted.  And then a big grin crossed her face, and Reiji knew where Yuya had gotten his smile from.

“So _you’re_ Reiji!” she said.  “Yuya’s told me about you.”

Reiji bowed his head, smiling faintly.  But the smile faded as Yoko suddenly looked confused.

“Hang on,” she said, frowning.  “Yuya just left. He said you texted him that your meeting time and place had changed and he had to hurry?”

Reiji’s lips parted.  He patted his pocket compulsively.

...where was his phone?

“Did he...say where that meeting place had changed to?” he said, a sudden uneasiness spiking in his chest.

* * *

Yuya hurried towards Reiji’s house, gasping.  This driveway was so long when you weren’t driving up it!!

“Darn Reiji,” he grumbled.

Still, he was a little excited — the message had said that Reiji had found some information on the pigtail ghost!  Maybe they were finally onto something!

Yuya knocked at the big doors and waited.  And waited. He frowned. He tried the handle.  Unlocked. He pushed inside.

“Reiji?” he called.  “Sorry I’m a little late.  It takes a while to run this far you know!”

No answer.  He frowned. He pulled his phone back out of his pocket, checking the message to make sure he had the time right.  He tapped out another message.

_Where r u?_

A moment passed.  Then his phone dinged.

_Upstairs._

Yuya pocketed his phone again, climbing the stairs towards Reiji’s room.

He almost slipped when the pigtails appeared from nowhere, rushing at him as though the girl had barreled towards him.  They rushed past him and he felt an icy cold pass through him as though she’d just run through him. Then the pigtails appeared again on the steps ahead of him.  He heard a faint, static-y hissing. That was _weird_.  This was the most agitated he’d ever seen her.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

He only caught a few words.   _“Away”_ and _“Reira”_ and _“call.”_  He frowned, trying to listen.

“Is something wrong with Reira?” he asked.

He heard another hiss of panic.  Yuya’s heart jumped into his throat.  He started climbing the stairs faster now.

“Don’t worry,” he told her as she continued to follow him and babble.  “I’ll find Reiji and Reira!”

He took the stairs two at a time, and then barreled around the corner towards Reira’s room first.  He pulled the door open and looked around wildly, but there was no sign of her.

“Reiji?  Reira?” he shouted.  He closed the door and headed towards Reiji’s room next door.  “Hey, Reiji— ”

He opened the door, and he froze.

Reira laid on Reiji’s bed, asleep or unconscious, Yuya couldn’t tell.  And Leo was sitting on the edge of the bed, staring at Yuya. Yuya felt his heart climb into his throat and choke him.

“H-hello, sir,” he said.  “What’s going on?”

Leo only stared at him.  Then Yuya saw the gun. His heart nearly exploded.

The gun wasn’t pointed at him, only sitting in Leo’s lap, but it was there all the same and Yuya couldn’t tear his eyes off it.  Leo inclined his head.

“Come in,” he said.  “Close the door.”

Yuya didn’t have any options, it sounded like.  He obeyed, stepping inside and closing the door behind him.  Leo nodded towards the chair at Reiji’s desk.

“Have a seat.”

Yuya shook, but he did as he was told.  Leo’s hand rested on top of the gun, but he did not pick it up.  He watched Yuya impassively for a long moment. His eyes moved to Reira, then, and Yuya could see the pigtails leaning over Reira, making faint sobbing sounds.

“What’s going on?” Yuya asked, his voice cracking.  “Is Reira all right?”

Leo’s lips pressed together.

“That all depends on you.”

Yuya didn’t know what to do or say.  He couldn’t breathe. Where was Reiji, anyway?  His eyes flickered to the desk and he saw Reiji’s phone sitting there.  Leo must have been the one who texted him.

Leo tapped his fingers on the gun.

“I’ve been watching you, Sakaki Yuya,” he said.  “And it seems...that you have a very unique skill.”

Yuya’s heart fluttered.

“I...have a lot of skills,” he said, fumbling.

Leo’s eyes darkened, and Yuya sat up straight.

“I mean, yes,” he said.  “You’re talking about the — the ghosts.  Right?”

“Good,” Leo said.  “Yes. I’m talking about the ghosts.”

He tapped his fingers along the gun again.  Yuya kept his hands in his lap, despite the desperate desire to reach for his phone and call the police.  That must have been what the girl was telling him to do — call the police.

“Why?” he said, unable to handle the silence.  “Why are you — threatening your daughter?”

Leo’s lips curled suddenly, and he looked terrifying.

“My daughter,” he sneered.  “This _child_ is barely more than a nuisance.”

He glared at Reira’s limp, unconscious body.

“My real daughter is gone,” Leo said.  “Gone forever. At least...until you.”

His eyes bored into Yuya’s, and Yuya felt like throwing up.

“Reiji doesn’t have another sister,” he mumbled.

“He doesn’t remember her, of course,” Leo said.  “Ray died long before he was born.”

Yuya trembled.  What was he supposed to do or say?  Leo watched him carefully, as though searching for signs of a crack to exploit.  He wouldn’t have to look far — Yuya was panicking.

“I saw her,” Leo said softly, his voice suddenly longing.  “Just once, after she died. I’d gotten into a scuffle outside a bar.  One of them had a crowbar. At some point, I had hold of it — I struck.  He died.”

Yuya shuddered, eyes wide.

“And as I saw the life flood out of him, I saw her.  Standing in front of me, as clear as day. She disappeared again before I could reach her.”

Now his voice cracked, with just the hint of insanity.  Yuya’s throat was so dry.

“I tried to recapture that moment, but it never worked.  It didn’t matter how I killed someone, I never caught sight of her.  I thought, perhaps, she was hiding from me.”

Oh _fuck_.  Yuya felt bile rise in his throat.

“Ah, but then...then I did some research,” Leo said.  “That’s always been my true talent, after all. And I found something curious.  The man who’d died in that fight had previously claimed to be a spiritual medium.  Someone who could see and hear ghosts.”

Yuya’s eyes bulged.  Oh fuck fuck fuck.

Leo took the gun, now, holding it lightly in his fingers.

“It’s a simple theory,” he said, examining the gun.  “Perhaps when the man died, for a moment, his sight flooded me.  I stole his life, and for a moment, I also stole his eyes.”

Yuya felt tears growing in his eyes.  He couldn’t breathe. The girl with the pigtails was crouched over Reira, but Yuya could only see the pigtails.

“Reira was showing signs of spiritual prowess,” Leo said.  “She could hear Ray, it seemed. And sometimes, I saw her looking at things I couldn’t see.  I thought, perhaps, this was a chance to test my theory. But what if it was wrong? What if there was a better way to more permanently obtain that ability?  No, I would need the chance to experiment. And to use Reira would waste my only resource.”

Yuya gasped for air, hyperventilating.  He could barely see anymore, his vision was winking out.

“And then...what should my son bring home out of the blue but an answer to my problems.”

Yuya swallowed.

“What did you do to Reira?”

“It’s only a sleeping draft,” Leo said softly.  “And that’s all it has to be.”

He pointed the gun at Yuya now.

“Come with me,” he said.  “Stand up. Or I will shoot Reira, and see if it causes the sight to return to me.”

Yuya stood up so quickly that he almost fell over.  Leo nodded to him to turn around, and Yuya did so. The gun bit into his back, as Leo pushed him out of Reiji’s room.  One hand held his shoulder as the other kept the gun on his back. Yuya stumbled along. Leo led him to another door, and shoved at him to open it.  Yuya’s hands shook, and he did so. It was the stairs to the attic, he saw, and Leo had him climb the stairs.

They arrived in the dusty old attic, filled with boxes and old things covered in cloth.  Leo forced Yuya to his knees, and the gun moved to the back of his head. The pigtails appeared in front of Yuya, and he could feel her icy cold arms wrapping around him, as though she were trying to cover him with her body.

“Hands behind you,” Leo ordered.  Yuya did so, and Leo locked a pair of handcuffs around his wrists to keep them secure behind him.

“W-what are you going to do?” Yuya whispered.  “Are you going to kill me?”

Leo let out a sigh.

“No,” he said.  “Not yet. I need to see if there’s another way to take the sight out of you.”

“I could just — talk to her for you,” Yuya said desperately.  “She’s right here, you know! She’s standing right here, and she’s — she’s asking you to stop.”

Leo sighed deeply.

“I’m afraid that’s not enough,” he said.  “I will see Ray again with my own eyes. I won’t have it filtered through another.”

“Do you really think she wants this??” Yuya gasped.  “Do you think your daughter wants to watch you kill people??”

Leo didn’t answer for a long moment.  The gun was still trained on the back of Yuya’s head.  He could hear the faint, horrified sobs of Ray as she hugged him.  Something cold seeped into Yuya’s chest.

“...how did Ray die?” he whispered.

Leo struck him hard on the back of the head with the butt of the gun, and Yuya went face first into the floor with a cry.  He was dragged back up by the hair, then, and something thick and soft was wrapped around his neck.

“Let’s see how close you have to come to death for the sight to pass to me.”

* * *

Reiji called Yuzu from a payphone, but Yuya wasn’t at her place, or at the house they were supposed to meet at. He called his own phone, then, but all he got was his voice mail.  He called the staff back at the house, but no one there had seen Yuya. The head housekeeper did say, however, that she’d see his father coming out of Reiji’s room earlier that day.

Reiji’s heart rose in his throat as he told his driver to take him back to the house as quickly as possible.  His phone must be there, which would mean that someone at the house would have had to text Yuya a false time change.  Someone who had known that Reiji was leaving the house.

Someone like his father.

_Father isn’t...going to hurt him, is he?_

Reiji was not the biggest fan of his father.  He was a cold man, who treated Reira with a sharp distaste and Reiji with utter indifference.  But that felt like just an ordinary bad father sort of thing. Would he steal Reiji’s phone and lure Yuya away for any reason?  Reiji couldn’t think of anything.

The car pulled up to the house, and Reiji fled upstairs.

“Yuya?” he shouted.

He pushed open the door to his room.  His phone was on the desk, and his chair was pulled out, when he clearly remembered pushing it back in.

Reira was on the bed.  His heart leaped into his throat.

“Reira!”

Reiji leaped over to Reira, lifting her up into his arms.  Her breath hitched in her sleep, but she didn’t wake up. Still, she was breathing.  Reiji’s heart slowed.

His phone fell off the desk with a loud crash.  He swore, clutching Reira closer to his chest as he looked over his shoulder.

There was no one else in the room.  A spiderweb of unease drifted over him.

His pencil cup fell over next, throwing pens and pencils all over the room.  He’d been staring right at that, and it had fallen like someone had smacked it.  What on earth —

The pens rolled towards the door.  One of them moved out into the hallway as though someone had kicked it.  Panic surging in his chest, he suddenly remembered the pigtail ghost. The pen moved again, down the hallway in a whole new direction again, as though it had been kicked once more.

Reiji laid Reira gently down on the bed, grabbed his phone from the floor, and ran after the pen.

He didn’t have to follow it far — he noticed the attic door was slightly ajar.

Reiji hit emergency call on his phone as he carefully crept up the stairs.  Maybe it was nothing. If it was, he’d be embarrassed. If it wasn’t...he would prefer the police to come as quickly as possible.

He heard a sound like someone kicking the wall above.  His heart quickened, but he forced himself to walk slowly, so as not to make the stairs creak and draw attention to himself.  Carefully, he eased himself up, peering into the dusty attic.

For a moment, he saw nothing in the dim light.  Then he heard it again — a kicking sound, and he saw some boxes move as though someone had struck them.  A rattling sound of someone letting out a last breath struck his ears.

Reiji’s heart froze.  The dispatcher was suddenly in his ears.

_“Emergency services, what’s your emergency?”_

“There is someone in my attic,” Reiji whispered, trying to stay calm.  He passed on his address.

Then he heard the sound again, the rattling gasp, and he couldn’t wait any longer.  The dispatcher probably told him to stay where he was, but he didn’t hear her, as he’d dropped the phone to run full force into the attic.

The scene on the other side of the boxes froze his heart.

He saw his father, pinning Yuya to the floor beneath him, a scarf wrapped around his neck.  Yuya’s eyes bulged like a frog’s, his face white as his legs kicked uselessly beneath Leo.

Reiji threw himself forward, colliding with his father.  It startled his father, but he was bigger and stronger than Reiji, and it did not dislodge him.  Leo grabbed him by the collar, yanking him back while Reiji clawed at him.

“What are you doing?” Reiji shouted.  “What the hell are you doing??”

“It is none of your concern, Reiji,” Leo snarled.

He flung Reiji back and Reiji crashed into a pile of boxes.  He coughed through the dust, struggling back up. He had to freeze in his movement to throw himself at his father again, however, when he saw the gun pointed at him.

Yuya was gasping greedily for air, as Leo had had to take his hands off of the scarf to hold the gun.  Reiji’s heart screamed.

“Father,” he gasped.  “What are you doing?”

His father was unrecognizable.  His eyes were wild, breaths labored.

“I will see Ray again,” he gasped.  “I _will_ see her again!”

“Reiji,” Yuya gasped.  “T-the pigtail ghost, it’s your sister, she’s — ”

Yuya’s words cut off as Leo put his hand over his throat and squeezed.  Reiji’s heart quickened.

“Father, I don’t understand,” he said.  “Sister? What does Yuya have to do with this!”

“Ray died,” Leo gasped.  “Before you were born. I’ll have this child’s sight, so that I can see her again.”

“You’ve gone mad,” Reiji swore, eyes wide.  “You’ve gone completely mad!”

“Perhaps I have,” Leo said.  “But I will see my daughter again.  And you will not stop me.”

Reiji heard the gunshot before he felt it.  His eyes widened with surprise. He felt warm spread over his chest, and when he tried to inhale, his lung protested.  Blood spurted between his fingers when he pressed his hand against it. Oh, fuck. That...that could have been his lung.  That might be a lung.

Yuya screamed hoarsely around his throat, and Leo put the gun back down, satisfied that Reiji was taken care of.  He put his hands around Yuya’s throat again, beginning to squeeze.

Reiji had no idea what was going on.  He had a dead sister? And his father was killing Yuya to try and see her again?  His vision was blacking out. He hoped that the police showed up soon. That at least Yuya could be saved from his insane father.

His vision blurred out.  He blinked. Was that...someone standing over him?  He saw the image of a woman all of a sudden, someone sitting over him with her hands on his shoulders.

She had...pigtails.  She looked young, maybe eighteen or nineteen.  And she had the same nose as him, the same shaped eyes.  Was this....Ray? His mysterious dead sister? Was he suddenly seeing ghosts?

Her mouth was moving, her eyes wide with fright and glassy with tears that rolled down her cheeks.   _Wake up,_ her mouth was saying.   _Reiji, stay awake!!_

 _I have a sister,_ he thought, his vision fading.   _She’s been...looking out for Reira and I all this time.  Urk...this hurts. I’m sorry, Ray...you brought me here to help Yuya, but I...can’t..._

He tried to look into her eyes, tried to catch some glimpse of this woman, this sister he’d never known.  He tried to reach for her face. Her eyes widened — it was as though she’d just realized that he could see her.  Her hand met his. They could not touch; their fingers passed through each other.

“Please,” Reiji gasped, blood coming up in his lips.  “I don’t know what you can do. But please...Yuya...save Yuya...at least...”

Ray’s eyes were wide and frightened.  But then her jaw set. Determination spread over her.

She closed her eyes, and she pressed her forehead to Reiji’s.

Everything blurred, and Reiji fell asleep.

* * *

The boy’s struggles were beginning to weaken.  His gaze was blurring out, and he’d stopped kicking.  Leo kept up the pressure. He glanced around for any sight of Ray, but it seemed the sight hadn’t come.  He sighed with frustration, letting off some of the pressure. He didn’t want the boy to die yet. Not until he’d found a fool proof plan to gain the sight.

He pressed his fingers to either side of Yuya’s eye, holding it open slightly.  His lips curled. How absolutely preposterous. That such a young child with no ambition, no reason to have such a gift to be granted it.  He dug his fingers against Yuya’s eye. Perhaps...if he plucked just one. Maybe the sight was, as was logical, located in the eyes. He could study it, see what made it different from another eye...

He felt a hand on his shoulder.

He looked up, just in time to see a fist collide with his face.

He was flung off of Yuya by the force of the blow, crashing into a pile of boxes.  Some of them crashed over his head and he threw his arms over his head to defend himself.  When he managed to see again, coughing dust from his lungs, he looked up to see who was attacking him.

His mouth dropped open.  Reiji stood over him. There was blood staining his shirt front from the bullet wound, but it seemed that the hole had...closed up?  His eyes were hard and intense.

“Reiji,” Leo coughed.  “That’s enough disobedience from you.”

He reached for the fallen gun, but Reiji stepped on it, and then kicked it back behind him, out of Leo’s reach.  His eyes were so — so harsh, so determined. It was unlike anything he’d seen in Reiji’s eyes.

“And that’s enough atrocities out of you, father,” he said.  Only, it wasn’t his voice.

Leo gaped, his eyes widening.

“Ray,” he breathed.  “Oh, Ray — is that you?”

Reiji’s eyes filled with angry tears.

“I’m done watching,” Ray/Reiji whispered.  “I’m done watching this, father. Done being useless to stop you.”

“Oh, Ray, Ray, Ray,” he gasped, his vision blurring as he tried to reach for her.  He was suddenly so dizzy that Reiji looked just like her — just like his beautiful darling Ray.  “Ray, I’ve wanted to see you, I’ve searched for you for so long!”

Ray blinked back more tears.  A wry smile spread her lips.

“You don’t deserve to see me,” she said.

He reached desperately for her, for his beloved daughter, but it was hard to see, it was hard to get his limbs to function.  She reached to one of the fallen boxes, dragging out a baseball bat from inside. She lifted it.

“Good night, papa,” she whispered.  “I don’t think we’ll see each other on the other side.”

The bat struck his head, and it all went dark.

* * *

Yuya awoke slowly.  There was a hand holding his, and he could just barely see the twist of red and blue lights swirling over a dark house front.  A soft voice spoke to him, just his name, over and over again. He turned, squinting.

“Reiji?” he whispered.

Reiji jolted up, as though he’d been in a trance.  Relief crashed over his face.

“Oh thank god,” he whispered.

Yuya squinted around.

“Where am I?” he whispered.  His voice was so hoarse. It was hard to talk...

He remembered all at once why.  His eyes widened. He tried to sit up, but Reiji gently held him down.

“You’re in an ambulance outside my house,” he said softly.  “Don’t worry. My father’s been arrested. He’s unconscious, though.”

Yuya squinted through the darkness, panicked and scared.

“You...you were shot,” he whispered.

Reiji smiled gently.  He leaned forward so that Yuya could see.  His shirt was bloodied, but there was no gun wound.

“But...how...?”

“I don’t know,” Reiji said.  He looked exhausted. He ran a hand through his hair.  “I think it was Ray.”

Yuya’s lips parted.  Reiji looked so far away all of a sudden, looking off into the distance.

“She...possessed me for a moment, I suppose,” he said.  “I was her. For just a moment.”

He still held Yuya’s hand, and Yuya weakly squeezed his fingers.

“What happened?” Yuya asked quietly.

Reiji’s glasses caught the glare so that Yuya couldn’t see his eyes.

“She...I felt what she did.  When she died. My father killed her.”

He sounded so far away.  His voice was tinny and distant, monotone.

“It was an accident.  She was sick, and he decided to mix his own attempt at a remedy.  But it was mixed wrong. He poisoned her. And in the end, the illness probably would have passed on its own.”

Yuya squeezed his hand again, feeling tears bubble to his eyes.

“I never knew,” Reiji said, his voice cracking.  “I never, ever knew.”

He began to cry, softly, and Yuya could only hold his hand.

He heard a soft breath, and turned his head the other way.

Ray was standing next to him.  He could see her as clear as day, not even see-through.  She bent over him, her cool hand on his forehead. Her eyes softened when his met hers.

“You can see me now,” she said softly.

“I...I can,” he said.

Reiji looked up.

“Yuya?  You can what?”

“I can see Ray.  She’s right here.”

Ray smiled, but her eyes were full of tears.  Reiji stood up, staring blindly at the space where she was.

“I’m so sorry you had to get mixed up in all of this,” she whispered.  “I was so...helpless. I wanted to stay here to watch over my father. But then I watched him turn into this.  I was so scared. I thought he might kill Reiji and Reira...my sweet siblings, who I never got to meet.”

She blinked back tears.  Then she smiled gently, touching Yuya’s forehead again.

“Take care of them for me, won’t you?” she said.  “Tell them I love them. That I’ll always love them.”

Yuya blinked back tears.

“I’ll tell them,” he said.  “And I will. I’ll take care of them.”

Ray smiled again.  Then she sighed, standing up.

“I think that’s as long as I can stay,” she said.  “Thank you, Yuya. Thank you, Reiji. And...goodbye.”

Yuya blinked, and Ray was gone.  He blinked back tears.

“Yuya?” Reiji asked. “Is...is she still here?”

Yuya shook his head.  Reiji hesitated. And then he slowly sank back into his seat beside Yuya.  The siren lights spun and spun and spun.

“She told me to tell me she loves you,” Yuya whispered.  “You and Reira.”

Reiji covered his face with one hand.  He gripped Yuya like a lifeline.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered.

Yuya held his hand, and let Reiji cry.  Then he closed his own eyes, and sighed.  His own tears began to fall.

But Reiji’s hand was warm.  And for now, that was enough.


End file.
